Mercenaries 2: World in Flames £8.99 @ Shopto [Xbox 360 Games]

Upon its release, Mercenaries 2 was utterly trounced by the critics. It was accused of being ‘shallow’, ‘repetitive’, ‘buggy’, ‘unfinished’, of having ‘terrible AI’, ‘rubbish gun battles’ and a ‘rubbish story’. But this is a game which simply won’t stop flying off the shelf - and the reason behind this miracle? Simple, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. So if you’re after a bit of light relief, Mercenaries 2 is currently going for £8.99 on shopto.

The problem with the slamming this game received from so many reviewers is that they are missing the point that, fundamentally, games are about entertainment. There is no denying the fact that the plot in Mercenaries 2 is appalling. That the voice acting is horrible and overall it’s about as deep and believable as an episode of Home and Away. But in terms of mindless entertainment, it truly excels. In fact, in some ways, the terrible story is actually a plus. The sheer number of awful clichés, terrible one liners and stupid plot twists make a great game to simply rip into with a group of friends.

The entertainment value is further reinforced by almost every aspect of gameplay. As soon as you begin playing, weapons and vehicles are literally rained down on you from support choppers. In the first 30 seconds you get an M16 and grenade launcher, after about 2 minutes you get the chance to unleash a massive airstrike; a further 3 and you are given a tank and told to flatten a shanty town. After a few hours playing Mercs 2 you even get your hands on nukes! (And they wonder why people like this game?)

Another accusation made against this game is regarding the dreadful AI. Yes I have to agree with the reviews, it is awful. Then again what’s so great about realism? The dumb bad guys actually make Mercenaries 2 even more fun because you are just unstoppable. No one can withstand the rampage as you storm through levels like Schwarzenegger, never running out bullets, running people over, and dropping nukes on them just for a laugh. But of course, like the game’s quirky theme song, what’s genius to some might be excruciating to others. Although some will undoubtedly hate this game, there are a lot of people who just can’t get enough, and to be honest it’s not difficult to see why.

Thanks to adam2050 from hotukdeals.

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To be fair to the reviewers, the amount of bugs and bad decisions in this game really did get in the way of enjoyment. The AI is just abysmal, mainly because it always wanted to kill you even when you were on their side - they just tried to hold back at that point. When I called in reinforcements to capture a base they all dropped in from helicopter and opened fire to try and kill me, I had to shoot them back which made the situation worse. Another time they mistimed their drop and all died...when doing a run in a tank the allied base mistook me for an enemy (it was one of their tanks as well!) and opened fire on me again forcing me to fire back.

The scripting at times is just horrible, at one point my NPC ally got totally confused and went back to the beginning instructing me to do missions at the start of the game which I'd done hours ago.. Triggers during missions didn't always trigger forcing the mission to be repeated.

For nine pounds it's worth it, I paid 15 for my copy and don't regret it as the core part of blowing up buildings can be enjoyable it's just a shame the game is so unbelievably rough.